


Performance Review

by StormtheCastle



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: DiaMari attacked me while I was just minding my own business., F/F, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 08:25:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18069956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormtheCastle/pseuds/StormtheCastle
Summary: Daydreaming while doing paperwork was not uncommon for Mari. Realizing she was in love while doing paperwork on the other hand…Fluff. I literally could not write anything else until I got this out of my head.





	Performance Review

It was getting very late and Mari still hadn’t finished typing up all the paperwork due the next day. She finished the sentence of her latest document and then saved it. When she took note of the time, she let out a sigh and rubbed her eyes.

Her to-do list had shrunk considerably since she had started attacking her tasks after Aqours’ practice, but the remaining pile was taunting her.

Mari glowered at it.

When the papers refused to spontaneously combust, she closed her eyes and took a moment to lean back.

She would never regret accepting the position—it had brought her back to Kanan and Dia, back to the school, back to Aqours. And Mari could not feel bad about putting much of her energy into managing the school’s dwindling resources in a way to keep the students and faculty as happy as she could.

But, she really could do with less paperwork.

Once she graduated, she was going to burn it all. Yes, that would be nice. She would host a _huge_ bonfire and everyone would be invited to dance around the burning papers.

There was a knock on the door and it opened as the person entered without waiting for a reply. Mari’s eyes shot open and she saw Dia standing there, a plastic bag in her hand.

“Hard at work, I see,” Dia noted drily.

“Dia!” Mari scrambled up. “What are you doing here? It’s late.”

For a moment, it almost looked like Dia was embarrassed as she avoided Mari’s curious gaze. Then she coughed and lifted the bag in her hands. “I wasn’t sure if you’ve eaten yet and brought snacks,” she said, distracting Mari when the blonde’s stomach rumbled in agreement.

“Shiny~!” Mari sang. “Thanks, Dia! Gimme gimme.” She made grabby motions with her hands and Dia handed the goods over with a fondly exasperated roll of her eyes.

“What do you have left?” Dia asked, moving over to Mari’s desk. She looked with a little concern at the still hefty pile. “Can I help?”

Mari mumbled something through a mouthful of bread.

“Mari-san…” Dia scolded.

“All the performance reviews for tomorrow,” Mari said after she had chewed and swallowed. “And I need to sign off on the budgets, but I’ve already looked through them so the stack only looks big.” She headed back to join Dia and rifled through the pages quickly to confirm. “Budget, budget, budget, teacher reviews, oh a spare request form, hm? What’s this?”

Mari paused at the end of the pile and read the sheet with a furrowed brow as Dia peered over her shoulder.

“That is new,” Dia commented. “Reviewing club presidents and the student council members? I wonder why.”

Mari groaned and covered her face in her hands to Dia’s alarm.

“Mari-san?”

“That bonfire is sounding so good right now,” Mari sighed mournfully.

“ _What?_ ”

“Even with how small our school is, please think about how many more reports that means I will have to write before tomorrow,” Mari explained.

“Oh.”

“Yes…” Mari looked down and then sighed. “I’ll have to take this back home tonight.” She made to start packing away the papers when Dia held out a hand to stop her.

“Wait.”

“What is it, Dia?”

“I can help,” Dia offered. “I can’t review myself, of course, but I have obviously been in contact with the club presidents and the other student council members during meetings.”

“Oh.” Golden eyes widened. “That’s true, but…”

Dia regarded her calmly, a hint of warmth peeking through. “I don’t have anything else due and I want to help,” she said softly. “Will that be okay?”

Relief and something indescribably warm rushed through Mari. “Yes! Thank you, Dia.”

Dia plucked the paper from Mari’s hands. “Don’t be so happy. I’ll be heading over to your home early tomorrow to make sure you finished your part of the work,” she teased gently.

Mari just grinned at her. “Don’t worry, Di~a. I’ll have the best reports. You’ll see.”

(-)(-)(-)

Back at the hotel, Mari was met with chaos.

Servers and guests in fine clothing were scattered throughout the common areas. Mari snagged the arm of a passing maid. “What’s going on?” she asked, raising her voice past the loud chatter.

“Did you forget, Ojou-sama?” the maid asked breathlessly, looking like she was half a second away from bolting to her next job. “We are hosting a conference soon. Ah, yes. Coming!” The maid ran off before Mari could reply.

Not that Mari could reply, if she had wanted to. She was too busy remembering what she had forgotten and checking the time in despair. If she was lucky, she could pop in, show her face for a bit, and then escape.

If not…

Well, it would be a long night.

(-)(-)(-)

“—so having her as our first years’ teacher has shown great growth in scores for the subject. Stop dictation.”

Mari finished dictating the report and did a cursory glance of her work as she quickly did up her hair. It looked good and she saved it with a pleased smile.

It vanished when she checked the time. It was time to make an appearance.

She quickly checked her papers and blinked. She had gone through her reports more quickly in the past couple hours than she had thought. She only had one more report for the faculty, the budgets, and… Dia’s review.

Mari blinked.

_How am I going to review_ Dia?

(-)(-)(-)

When Mari finally trooped back to her room, her mind was numb from the mindless chatter she had participated in. It was also late enough that Mari decided to bring in her laptop with her to her bath so she could dictate while she soaked.

She almost nodded off a few times and had to delete several lines of choked sputtering and curses, but she managed to finish one report by the time she dragged herself out of her bubbles.

It was approaching midnight and as Mari settled down at her desk, warm and freshly clean, she could only stare at the blank screen for several minutes. “Right,” she finally said when nothing came to mind. “Let’s sign the budgets first… Delete. End dictation.”

But that only managed to put off the inevitable for a couple minutes and Mari was left right back where she started.

Mari was tempted to go to sleep and then finish the report early tomorrow, but something about the idea of Dia coming across her while she wrote _about_ Dia made her flush and she shook her head furiously at the idea.

She stood up. Maybe if she moved, she would keep herself awake enough. Clearing her throat, she began:

“Kurosawa Dia…” Her mind rifled through an entire rolodex of descriptions before settling on the simplest. “… is a hard-working student council president.”

Mari knew that barely even scraped the surface of Dia and her sleepy mind protested the simple beginning.

Before she knew it, she was saying more.

“Ever since I met her, she has always done her best to _be the best_. Not only does she strive to constantly better herself, but she does so for the betterment of her peers and all the people under her care.

“And Dia _always_ cares. Not just for her sister and her close friends but the school and everyone in it. When someone needs help, she is there to offer a hand or advice.”

Mari took a moment to giggle.

“Even if she is sometimes awkward about it, she will do everything in her power to help a person in need. And… sometimes she gets super into it! It is like an entirely different Dia, all _burning_ and _passion!_ And she makes me want to do better and give it my all and I’m sure everyone else who knows her feels the same way.

“Ah, but I do like hardness-of-ten Dia and the cute side of Dia-chan too. I love all sides of her, really! You know, there are all these facets of her that I want to find out sometimes. She’s always so _shiny_ whether she’s smothering Ruby-chan or scolding the group when we goof off or when she smiles because I get her that tea that she really likes.”

Mari smiled dreamily as she thought of the way Dia’s eyes had gleamed and then focused on Mari. Always so direct, so focused. All that attention directed to _her_ …

“And I just want to keep finding ways to make her smile and look at me like that. Because I—”

Mari came to a stop as she stared straight ahead.

“Oh!” Mari said dumbly, eyes wide and staring at that vision of Dia in her mind’s eye. “I’m in love with Dia.”

She jumped when the sound of someone pounding the door to her room cut through the silence. Without thinking, she leapt to her laptop.

“End dictation,” she ordered. She didn’t even notice as her hand automatically pressed the keys to save the report before she closed the file quickly and she slammed the screen down.

“What is it?” she called.

“Sorry to bother you, Ojou-sama, but we need your help!”

Distracted, Mari went to the door. She did not think about what she had written at all for the rest of the night.

(-)(-)(-)

The next day, Mari greeted Dia with a bright smile and no memory of her sleepy ramblings (and realization) of the night before. Instead, she laughed, joking about how she had finished all her reports on time and wasn’t Dia proud of her?

She sent the reports off by email and then dragged a protesting Dia off for a wonderful breakfast before they headed off to school.

All the paperwork was done, the day was beautiful, Dia was there… what more could she possibly need?

(-)(-)(-)

Mari leaned back on her chair with her feet on her desk and stared at the ceiling.

It was a very nice day with no paperwork. Aqours practice had gone by excellently. Mari could even leave to go home earlier once she finally got the motivation to move from her very comfortable seat.

The door slammed open and Mari jolted up.

“Dia?” she asked, blinking at the other girl who stood in the doorway.

Dia’s face was flushed and her chest was heaving as she stood there and stared wordlessly at Mari.

“What’s wrong?” Mari asked, sliding her feet off her desk and standing up worriedly.

“Is this a joke?” Dia asked, lifting up a sheet of paper in a trembling fist.

“What is it?” Mari asked, mind whirling. Had she missed something?

Did she—gasp—still have paperwork to do?

“ _Your review for me_ ,” Dia snarled.

“My—” Mari froze. Oh no. She _hadn’t_.

With stunning clarity that had previously been missing, Mari could remember every detail of the report she had dictated the night before as well as her actions the next morning: cheerfully and obliviously sending her reports to be printed and handed out that very day.

Her mouth opened and closed as she struggled to reply. She couldn’t even laugh it off, too thrown by the dull flush rising in her own cheeks as she gaped at Dia.

Something about Mari’s expression calmed the anger tensing Dia’s body and now she seemed more uncertain. Self-conscious. “Did you mean it?”

Mari swallowed. She didn’t like that doubt in Dia’s stance but even this Dia was cute—

Damn, she had it bad, didn’t she?

She took a deep breath and made her way over to Dia, who tilted her head up slightly to meet her gaze.

“Yes,” Mari said firmly. She linked trembling fingers behind her back. “This isn’t quite how I would have wanted you to know, but…”

“Oh, okay,” Dia said shakily. “Then this will be fine.” And _what did that mean?_

Then Dia’s hand shot forward and grabbed Mari’s school tie. “Wh-?”

The rest of Mari’s question was muffled as Dia pulled her into a kiss.

Mari’s thoughts scattered.

There was Dia’s lips and then her tongue and Mari leaned in slightly. She wanted—

Mari froze as her mind finally caught up to what they were doing: making out in the doorway of her office.

Almost immediately, Dia’s grip loosened and she started to draw back.

There was that infuriating uncertainty again. Dia should not be allowed to look so downtrodden.

“No, it’s just—here. Come in,” Mari managed to get out breathlessly, trying not to focus too much on Dia’s lips and the way every part of her body burned.

Mari stepped back and after Dia followed her through hesitantly, she closed the door behind Dia with a click and a smile.

“How forward of you, Di~a,” Mari teased, regaining the use of her tongue.

Dia stuttered.

Mari leaned forward once more, reveling in the way Dia’s eyes dropped down to her flushed lips. “I like it,” she murmured.

Dia’s eyes flashed. She reached out again, firm but slow to carefully grab Mari’s tie once more.

“Go ahead,” Mari murmured.

“No,” Dia said equally softly, a gleam of rare mischief in her eyes. “It’s your turn.”

_Oh, demanding Dia._ Mari laughed and leaned forward to press her lips once more against Dia’s. Dia’s lips curved up into their kiss and she felt a responding smile form. And Mari didn’t draw away this time, instead she pressed closer, pressing Dia against the door. _Oh yes._ She liked this Dia a lot too.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly still can't believe I wrote this.


End file.
